It’s a show in which the “celebrity judge” has virtually turned into a mute spectator. Waging a lone war against the alleged cable “mafia” in Punjab, the local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday once again went public on the issue of action against the Fastway Cables, having links with the Badal family.
Presenting additional “facts and figures” to highlight the “extent of tax evasion” by the Fastway Transmissions Private limited, Sidhu chose the media to appeal to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to initiate action against the “monopolistic” company.
Congress’ firebrand leader Sidhu, it seems, has virtually turned into a general without army in the absence of permissions by the “captain”. Sidhu, who has all along been raising a pitch against the Fastway Cables, on Wednesday bring in a Supreme Court lawyer Vineet Bhagat, who has been fighting cases for cable operators since a decade, to point out the Fastway’s way of functioning.
Earlier, to fortify his case, Sidhu had brought a former Central Excise Officer Sl Goyal who exposed how the Fastway went into evading not only the state’s but also the central taxes. Interestingly, his department officials did not accompany him at both instances.
Sidhu had first raised the issue on the last day of the budget session held in June, following which he had written to the Chief Minister, who also holds the Excise and Taxation portfolio, regarding the same. Sidhu had also asked for handing over the matter to the Vigilance, but to no avail.
While the Chief Minister was dragging his feet claiming that he was against “witch-hunting”, Sidhu has all along been pressing for acting against Fastway. So much so, that he even managed to convince the Chief Minister to act against Fastway if “there was some violation”.
Capt Amarinder has asked Sidhu to meet the Advocate General Atul Nanda to discuss the entire issue while asking the lawyer to go into the details of the matter, and come with the proposed action within 10 days.
“I had met the A-G and discussed the entire matter, But we need a strong law to act against the violators. They (Fastway) have been finding a way out to evade the law…law should not be so weak to act against the offender,” Sidhu told The Pioneer, adding that the Government is working on it.
On his behalf, Sidhu even issued directions to local self-governments to evaluate how much the tax the cable operators owe to the government and issue notices for recovering the same, which also missed the target.
“We are finding its long-term solution. We have called for a specialised machine — GPR. Ground Penetrating Machine which would help in measuring how wire has been laid, but it is a long process and would take time,’ said Sidhu.
He added, “We will be sending notices after proper analysis. Not to the small cable operators, whom the Fastway has looted, but to the big fish.”
Sidhu minced no words to admit that a “lobby” has been working against him, saying, “The lobby is against me since 14 years, but could not succeed.”
CONDUCT AUDIT OR AllOW ME: SIDHU TO CM
In an apparent alacrity to act against the Fastway, Sidhu has appealed the Chief Minister to take a call on the recovery of alleged tax evasion of whopping Rs 20,000 crore by the Fastway or allow him to audit the Company’s account to expose it.
“As the matter relates to the Excise and Taxation Department, headed by the Chief Minister, I request him to act against them or give my Department the responsibility to proceed against them,” said Sidhu citing the amended rules since July 1.
“We are prepared with the entire ground work to proceed in the matter,” he said, adding that it’s a cowardice not to act despite knowing everything.
“I request the Chief Minister to allow me to audit their accounts following which everything will be crystal clear, or I will bring in an ordinance to be placed before the Cabinet to make changes in the law,” said Sidhu.
Quoting the “rough figures” of Rs 20,000 crore tax evasion by the Fastway as provided by the SC lawyer Vineet Bhagat, Sidhu made it clear that he would pursue the matter to its logical conclusion instead of finding a temporary solution.
Bhagat, who claimed to have fought cases of cable operators from all district of Punjab, maintained that the previous SAD-BJP government had made “special concessions” for the Fastway Cable company by amending tax provisions.
“In 1995, the Entertainment Tax in Punjab was Rs 50 per television. But, the previous government amended the provisions to keep Fastway out of the tax net and imposed a lump sum tax of Rs 15,000 per annum on the proprietors of the Cable TV network,” Bhagat said adding that it cost Rs 1,440 crore to state exchequer taking into account a conservative figure of 40 lakh connections of Fastway, as mentioned in the report of Competition Commission of India of 2012.
He maintained that to discourage direct to home (DTH) service and to make it uncompetitive, a tax of 10 per cent was levied on DTH services by the SAD-BJP government.
Sidhu alleged that the Fastway Cable owners even failed to deposit the meagre annual tax of Rs 15,000 to the government, but no action was taken.
Despite having more than 80 lakh connections today, they have grossly under declared their connectivity at about 24 lakh connections to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and continue to short change the Government and the regulator, he added.
Citing a TRAI letter, Sidhu pointed out that at one point of time, out of the total 24.4 lakh set top boxes in the state, 21.5 lakh belonged to Fastway Transmissions, 1.75 lakh to Hathway and 32,000 to others.